William Hay, winner of 3 Kenneth R. Wilson Writing Awards and Folio Award, Canadian Author Association member,author of Caesarean Section and Love Between the Sacred and Profane poetry books, and Psychiatry and Addiction, Personal Perspective book, magazine short story and prose columnist.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Christ Church Cathedral - Easter Sunday

Christ Church Cathedral is directly across the street from the Hyatt. The North Shore Round Up didn’t used to overlap with Easter Weekend but the Hyatt offered the North Shore Round Up an incredible deal on the weekend so thereafter Christians like me had to juggle our Holy Week with Round up or choose one over the other. The Gay AA round up occurs on this weekend too making it a very packed time for some.
If one attends Easter Sunday service at Christ Church you can get away just in time to hear the last Spiritual Speaker of the Round Up at Sunday noon.
My church today is St James Anglican. I was a member of Christ Church Cathedral for about 12 years until Gilbert at the age of 2 was suddenly accosted by one of the members of Christ Church Cathedral and told in the middle of the service that he could not be there. He was as usual sitting quietly at our feet but we were asked to leave and it was embarrassing though not humiliating as I suspected was the intent. Alternatively the overzealous young man might have thought he’d get in trouble with God or the deacon if he allowed an animal in the church. Jesus, by contrast, loved animals, starting his life in a manger. Zoroastrians considered dogs especially to be divine which occasioned Moslems to call them dirty until a particular dog saved the Brotherhood.
The irony indeed was that Gilbert specifically, a therapy dog, had been blessed by our Bishop. Laura, Gilbert and I left church that Sunday and drove to nearby St. James Church where Father Mark greeted us. He even said that while Gilbert was truly welcomed he wasn’t yet sure about me.
I’m thankful each year for the North Shore Round Up to bring me back to Christ Church. I’ve always loved this oldest Anglican church in Vancouver with all the ages of devotion seeping from the hundreds of thousands of Christians who’ve worshipped here through wars and peace. We stand on the shoulders of those who go before us. I’ve loved to be able to travel to Jerusalem, Rome, Moscow and Istabul to pray and worship in the churches which began over fifteen hundred years ago. I am heartened by the stewardship of Dean Elliot that this last decade has seen the restoration of the organ, the renovation of the basement and now the roof of Christ Church being restored.
Rupert Lang the conductor and choir leader has made sure that Christ Church has won countless awards for their incredible music. Easter Sunday, with the horns and resurrection hymns is the best. Laura and I arrived early and were joined by our friends George and Jane. It was a lovely service.
Christ is risen. Christ is Risen Indeed. Hallelujah!
And yes, right after communion, we rushed to the Hyatt to catch the last of the North Shore Round Up Speakers. A marvellously full and spiritual community weekend.

About Me

I began writing travel stories in grade 3. My mother was a journalist. I started publishing poetry and photography in high school. Dancing and acting followed with study in England with the world champion after bicycling across Europe. Medical school was also a time of canoeing and cross country skiing. Dad was a great outdoorsman. Country general practice was followed by northern fly in medicine. Completing a medicine fellowship and specializing in psychiatry, I did my California medical examinations before returning north to British Columbia where I began big game hunting, chicken farmed and sailed. Eventually, I solo sailed to Hawaii through winter storms. An island psychiatrist in Saipan, the weekly scuba diving was spectacular.Back in Canada, living on the sailboat,my Harley Davidson motorcycle became a whole new source of adventure.
Raised Baptist, I taught sunday school for the United Church and eventually became Anglican a decade back. Bible study, Yogananda, Tai Chi, AA, celtic and native studies all added to that ecumenical Christian spirituality.
Blessed by a loving family, beautiful partners, friends, pets and resilient house plants, life's a miracle.